Blues Poems

ForewordSTANDARDS (Blues Poems before World War II)LANGSTON HUGHES The Weary Blues LANGSTON HUGHES Morning After LANGSTON HUGHES Beale Street Love LANGSTON HUGHES Song for a Dark Girl LANGSTON HUGHES Midwinter Blues LANGSTON HUGHES Too Blue LANGSTON HUGHES Note on Commercial Theatre 26FENTON JOHNSON Tired CLAUDE MCKAY The Harlem DancerNANCY CUNARD Memory Blues COUNTEE CULLEN Colored Blues Singer STERLING BROWN Ma Rainey STERLING BROWN Choices NICOLÁS GUILLÉN High Brown MELVIN B. TOLSON Sootie JoeMAXWELL BODENHEIM Street-level JazzW. H. AUDEN Blues W. H. AUDEN Funeral Blues MURIEL RUKEYSER George Robinson: BluesLEOPOLD SENGHOR Ndéssé, or “Blues” OWEN DODSON Guitar CHARLES EDWARD SMITH Blues StanzasRICHARD WRIGHT AND LANGSTON HUGHES Red Clay BluesRICHARD WRIGHT The FB Eye Blues VINCENT MCHUGH Dicty Blues WARING CUNEY Down-home Boy WARING CUNEY Carry Me BackWARING CUNEY Let Me Tell You Blues Singers Something GWENDOLYN BROOKS Queen of the Blues SOME SONGSW. C. HANDY St. Louis BluesMAMIE SMITH Crazy Blues MA RAINEY See See Rider BluesBESSIE SMITH Empty Bed BluesBESSIE SMITH Backwater Blues BESSIE SMITH Gimme a PigfootIDA COX Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues RICHARD M. JONES Trouble in MindBLIND WILLIE JOHNSON Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed SON HOUSE Death Letter Blues ROBERT JOHNSON Kindhearted Woman Blues ROBERT JOHNSON Hellhound on My Trail ROBERT JOHNSON Love in Vain JIMMY RUSHING Sent for You Yesterday LEADBELLY Good Morning Blues MUDDY WATERS Hoochie Coochie ManBIG MAMA THORNTON Hound Dog FORMJAYNE CORTEZ You Know AMIRI BARAKA Look for You Yesterday, Here You Come TodaySONIA SANCHEZ Blues SONIA SANCHEZ Blues Haikus SONIA SANCHEZ Set. No. 2 NIKKI GIOVANNI Master Charge Blues MARGARET WALKER Inflation Blues QUINCY TROUPE Woke Up Crying the Blues ELIZABETH ALEXANDER Letter: Blues A. VAN JORDAN Cheating Woman Blues Haiku ETHERIDGE KNIGHT Feeling Fucked/Up FACING OFFJAMES C. MORRIS The Blues KENNETH REXROTH Married Blues KENNETH PATCHEN Lonesome Boy Blues HENRY DUMAS Concentration Camp Blues HENRY DUMAS Outer Space Blues DEREK WALCOTT Blues SHERMAN ALEXIE Reservation BluesGUSTAVO PÉREZ FIRMAT Bilingual BluesMARILYN CHIN Blues on YellowCARL PHILLIPS Blue GAYL JONES Deep Song CALVIN FORBES Soledad CALVIN FORBES Some PiecesDARRELL BURTON Broom Song ALLEN GINSBERG Sickness BluesSANDRA MCPHERSON Bad Mother BluesAFAA M. WEAVER Rambling JUNE JORDAN Uncle Bull-boy TRACIE MORRIS Get Away 1928SEAN HILL Joe Chappel’s Foot Log Bottom Blues 1952 ALAN DUGAN Swing Shift BluesBILLY COLLINS The Blues FIGURESSHERLEY ANNE WILLIAMS Any Woman’s Blues CORNELIUS EADY I’m a Fool to Love You CORNELIUS EADY Muddy Waters & the Chicago Blues CORNELIUS EADY Leadbelly KEVIN YOUNG Langston Hughes WILLIE PERDOMO Song for Langston STERLING PLUMPP Muddy Waters HONORÉE FANONNE JEFFERS Big Mama Thornton CHARLES WRIGHT Poem Almost Wholly in My Own Manner JOHN BERRYMAN Dream Song [no. 40]DAVID WOJAHN John Berryman Listening to Robert Johnson’s King of the Delta Blues, January 1972 FORREST HAMER ArrivalDAVID RIVARD Not Guilty ALFRED ENCARNACION Bulosan Listens to a Recording of Robert Johnson FREIGHTAL YOUNG The Blues Don’t Change G. E. PATTERSON Cinderella YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Annabelle YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA For You, Sweetheart, I’ll Sell Plutonium Reactors YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Woman, I Got the Blues CATHERINE BOWMAN Hard-Luck Resume THOMAS MCGRATH Gone Away Blues ROBERT CREELEY Broken Back Blues JOSEPH BRODSKY Blues WILLIAM MATTHEWS Narcissus Blues RAYMOND R. PATTERSON Special Pain BluesTOI DERRICOTTE Blackbottom MAJOR JACKSON How to Listen JANE COOPER Wanda’s BluesALBERT MURRAY From Aubades NATASHA TRETHEWEY At the Station JEFF FALLIS Nosferatu BluesCHARLES SIMIC Bed Music JOHN YAU Domestic Bliss BOB KAUFMAN Blues for Hal Waters BOB KAUFMAN Heavy Water Blues WANDA COLEMAN Heavy Daughter Blues TERRANCE HAYES The Things-No-One-Knows Blues ANTHONY WALTON The Encyclopedia of Rhythm and Blues FINALE (For Bessie Smith)ALVIN AUBERT BessieROBERT HAYDEN Homage to the Empress of the BluesJACKIE KAY Twelve Bar Bessie MYRON O’HIGGINS Blues for Bessie WARING CUNEY Bessie Smith COLLEEN J. MCELROY Mae West Chats It Up with Bessie Smith MICHAEL S. HARPER Last Affair: Bessie’s Blues Song List of Authors Acknowledgments